Volume 1, Episode 6
006
A voice came from beyond the door fitted with iron bars.
There stood a young boy who looked visibly haggard at a glance.
“A-rank. Probably around the mid-tier.”
That boy was the only one remaining in this resolution agency.
Swish.
The two men who heard the voice.
The gazes of Lee Seojun and Kim Juwon simultaneously focused on the boy.
“I believe that’s the hacker.”
Kim Juwon spoke, looking at Lee Seojun.
“That’s right. I’m the one who registered the information for the person called Lee Seojun.”
Then the boy trapped inside the iron bars, Lee Hyeonu, answered.
“…….”
The look in Lee Seojun’s eyes changed.
While one reason he had come here was to gauge his own capabilities to some extent.
“This is good. No need to bother searching.”
It was to leave no trace behind.
Because he was someone who never left loose ends.
This was akin to his own personal doctrine, established after experiencing countless things on the planet Lumer.
“-Hyung. The cleaner the aftermath at a resolution agency, the more trust you gain from clients. That way, even more….”
He had roughly learned about resolution agencies through Kim Juwon.
They had their own ecosystem, so they didn’t receive much interference, and they themselves spared no effort to ensure they left no traces.
But the record of approaching a government agency was different.
Thud.
That was why that boy was someone who could complicate matters.
“U-um… Hyung.”
Kim Juwon cautiously called out to Lee Seojun, who was walking forward.
Thud.
But Lee Seojun continued ahead without looking back.
His gaze was fixed on where the boy was.
“What are you trying to do right now….”
Anxiety bloomed in Kim Juwon’s heart at this sight.
‘No way.’
He’s not planning to do something to that boy, is he?
Kim Juwon was looking at Lee Seojun with exactly such an expression.
Then, at that moment.
“I don’t leave loose ends.”
Lee Seojun’s voice resonated through the quiet interior.
“……!”
Kim Juwon’s pupils shook, profoundly flustered.
That ‘no way’ became a certainty through Lee Seojun’s words.
Lee Seojun seemed intent on eliminating that boy.
“Ah…!”
Kim Juwon’s face drained of color.
He had thought Lee Seojun was a villain.
-Shhk!
Hadn’t he taken care of all the Samil Resolution Agency employees without so much as a flicker of hesitation?
But he had thought he was a villain who helped society.
That he would eliminate a boy like that….
“Y-you can’t!”
Kim Juwon shouted loudly at Lee Seojun’s back as he walked.
Pat-pat-pat!
At the same time, he dashed forward like an arrow with all his might.
“Look at those iron bars! That kid was merely being used!”
Kim Juwon blocked Lee Seojun’s path.
“That kid hasn’t committed any crime….”
“You seem to be misunderstanding something.”
Lee Seojun looked down at Kim Juwon standing before him.
Swish.
Their gazes crossed as they faced each other.
-Grrk! Grrrk!
Kim Juwon, who had never stood face-to-face with him since that day.
Tremble, tremble, tremble.
The terror of that day surged up, reminding him of what he had forgotten.
“Ah….”
This man, Lee Seojun, was a merciless villain.
“Did you think I pass judgment on evildoers?”
Lee Seojun spoke to Kim Juwon with a blank expression.
“…….”
Kim Juwon could not answer his question.
“I move out of necessity. I have no interest whatsoever in the binary thinking you entertain.”
“But….”
Just as Kim Juwon opened his mouth, clutching at straws.
Boom!
A heavy noise echoed through the interior.
Kim Juwon’s body flew through the air with the explosive sound.
“Kuk!”
Kim Juwon crashed into the wall and coughed up blood.
“Block me one more time, and I’ll kill you too.”
Kim Juwon looked at Lee Seojun with dim eyes and thought.
Of himself, who had been unable to do anything when Lee Seojun was captured that day.
That he was atoning for that sin now….
It was then.
“It’s a contract.”
The boy pulled something out.
Lee Hyeonu spoke.
“I’m useful.”
A voice speaking toward Lee Seojun.
The boy’s voice trembled slightly, but it was firm.
“You won’t regret keeping me alive.”
Lee Hyeonu said, looking up at Lee Seojun.
“More than that guy.”
Lee Hyeonu raised a finger and pointed at Kim Juwon.
“…….”
Lee Seojun looked down at the boy without any expression.
“It’s a contract stating that if I betray you, I die. It’s an item circulating in the underworld, effective even up to C-rank Hunters.”
Having found his voice, the boy was unstoppable.
“It might be useless against an A-rank like you, but I’m different as an F-rank. Betrayal means death. With this, can you keep me alive?”
And.
“Do you have one more?”
Lee Seojun said.
* * *
“Scary kid.”
Kim Juwon said, looking at the boy, Lee Hyeonu.
The boy who survived by forming the contract with Lee Seojun’s permission was currently staying at the Samil Resolution Agency where Lee Seojun had first met Kim Juwon, together with Kim Juwon.
“Hah.”
Kim Juwon was surprised once again looking at the boy.
The boy who had barely survived told him everything that had happened.
That his parents were murdered and he was kidnapped by Lee Yeongwon, the president of the Haesin Resolution Agency.
“To think you were waiting for Hyung-nim.”
And Lee Hyeonu had been waiting for Lee Seojun.
“-Please! The deposit’s been made!”
Lee Hyeonu, who had registered his information that day, remembered the urgent voices of the resolution agency employees.
If they, who handled difficult matters without batting an eye, had come to him terrified and asking for something, it wouldn’t have been a request but a threat.
And after that too.
“-Hey. Hyeonu. I heard that Daeyoung Resolution Agency they went to completely disappeared? Ah. This is troubling.”
He had heard that the resolution agency had vanished.
At that time, Lee Hyeonu had thought.
“-Eliminating all witnesses.”
If they had done such a thing even after achieving their goal, it would have been to destroy evidence.
“-They’ll try to eliminate me too.”
But Lee Yeongwon, who was holding him captive, was a B-rank Hunter.
He was a rare powerhouse in the resolution agency world.
“-No. But still, just in case… just in case.”
He had no confidence.
Even so, he had been waiting while holding onto a sliver of hope.
“Don’t do anything stupid.”
Lee Hyeonu said to Kim Juwon.
“What, you brat?”
“Don’t recklessly block that person’s path like you did that day.”
Kim Juwon had stepped forward to save Lee Hyeonu.
“That’s….”
Lee Hyeonu had rebuked him for it instead.
“You’ll really die doing that.”
“…….”
For a moment, an obscure silence flowed between them.
Only the sound of Kim Juwon swallowing dryly resounded.
“If you want to do something good, run away. Because that contract is fake.”
Lee Hyeonu had handed two contracts to Lee Seojun.
And one was signed with himself, and one with Kim Juwon.
‘Death Contract.’
An item circulating in the dark underworld.
It was a contract where one side would lose their life if broken.
Its effect was certain.
“W-what?”
Kim Juwon was aghast at the fact that he had done such a thing.
How detestable the kid had been when he handed over one more contract back then.
And yet it was fake.
“Then yours too…?”
Kim Juwon asked with a face saying ‘surely not.’
“No.”
But the answer he had hoped for did not come.
“Mine is real.”
“…….”
Kim Juwon’s face, which had held hope even for a moment, hardened in an instant.
“I have things to do. That’s why I must survive no matter what.”
Lee Hyeonu spoke calmly to Kim Juwon.
“But I can’t gamble on something like that.”
“Crazy bastard….”
Kim Juwon couldn’t help but click his tongue at Lee Hyeonu’s attitude.
To think such words were coming from the mouth of such a young, fresh-faced kid.
And he was speaking as if it were nothing.
As if this kind of thing were everyday life.
“So run away.”
“…….”
“That person probably knows too.”
“Hyung-nim?”
Kim Juwon made a surprised expression.
“Hah! Forget it.”
But soon he erased his expression and let out a deep sigh.
He had no intention of running away.
“I was fated to die that day anyway.”
A fate to die by Lee Seojun’s hand.
“If not for that, my hands would have become filthy beyond words.”
Even if he had survived, he would have lived a dirty life being used by the resolution agency as they pleased.
That was why Lee Seojun was.
“In a way, a benefactor to me too.”
“Then don’t block him.”
“Fine. Very well.”
Kim Juwon recalled Lee Seojun with an awkward smile.
He had gone to receive the Tutorial right now.
“That kind of person, receiving a Tutorial.”
If anyone were to see even a glimpse of it, they would be horrified.
* * *
Kim Seungmin, he who was climbing the elite course of the Hunter Association.
Currently, he was the team leader of the Hunter Management Department, wielding formidable power even within the association.
“-SS-rank Gate.”
The association was in a state of emergency due to the occurrence of an SS-rank Gate a few days prior.
Fortunately, they hadn’t found the Gate, and it was being settled as one of the occasional errors or supernatural phenomena.
“-Something is strange.”
But Kim Seungmin could not accept this situation.
He had raised doubts.
“-Animalistic instinct.”
The reason he could rise through the ranks quickly even at a young age.
It was because he was someone who possessed animalistic instinct.
“-Sixth sense.”
A sixth sense that could never be explained in words.
He possessed an outstanding ability to detect danger with it.
“-I am well aware that the sense you possess is outstanding. After all, we have benefited from it on many occasions.”
However.
“-Not this time.”
The Association Chairman was obstinate beyond compare.
“-Why?”
An anxiety that something remained.
-Grit.
It had completely seized Kim Seungmin’s mind.
The word anxiety kept suddenly rearing its head.
“-It’s an S-rank Gate, no, beyond that. If a Gate existed, that would be one thing, but don’t make a big deal out of a situation where one doesn’t even exist.”
But the Association Chairman was resolute.
“-The government wants that too.”
“-But!”
An S-rank, beyond that, Gate.
Its danger level was not something that could be dared described entirely in words.
That was why no compromise should be made for any vested interests, and yet.
“-If I say no, it means no.”
“-Chairman!”
The situation had not been kind to Kim Seungmin.
“-The Republic of Korea is on the verge of becoming a G7 right now.”
G7.
A word referring to the great Hunter nations called the Great Seven.
An opportunity to become a safe haven and leading nation of the world by escaping the threat called Gates and possessing enormous Hunter forces.
“-If it were revealed that an S-rank, no, beyond that, Gate had appeared in the Republic of Korea in this situation, what do you think would happen?”
“-No matter what…!”
“-Whether it’s true or not.”
G7 would go down the drain.
“-So keep your mouth shut.”
“-Chairman!”
Kim Seungmin could understand the Chairman’s position.
But no matter what.
“-It doesn’t make sense.”
A story he could never accept.
-Clench.
The moment Kim Seungmin clenched his fist tightly and looked at the Chairman.
“-You’re suspended.”
The Chairman had spoken, exhaling shortly.
“-Watch the Tutorial or something and cool your head.”
That was the end of it.
Had he protested any further, it wouldn’t have ended with mere suspension.
“Huu.”
Kim Seungmin let out a long sigh.
Amidst this urgent situation, he resented himself for having to worry about something like the Tutorial.
The strongest villain in history had returned.